The object of the invention is a cosmetic preparation in the form of a gel having special consistency and with a particular surface appearance. The gel contains undissolved, gelled, water-swelled polymer particles and at the interface with gaseous substances forms reversibly a grainy, uneven, light-scattering surface and at the interface with solids it forms reversibly a smooth, level, non-light-scattering surface. Preferred gel formers are superabsorbing polymers. Another object of the invention is the use of superabsorbing polymers for hair-end protection during permanent wave treatments.
To confer strength and hold to human hair or to stabilize an established hair style, hair-treatment preparations in the form of, for example, gels, liquid gels, spray gels etc. are used. As a rule, such products contain a combination of gel formers and hair-fixing polymers. The cosmetic, hair-fixing polymers used for this purpose exhibit good fixing properties in aqueous, alcoholic or aqueous-alcoholic media and after application keep the hair more or less in shape and fix it and stabilize the established hair style. The drawback of conventional hair gels is that they require a relatively high content of gel formers. This results in higher formulation costs and a higher risk of incompatibility with other formulation constituents as well as in undesirable side effects on the hair, for example, stickiness, higher build-up etc.
The object of the invention is to provide cosmetic preparations with, on the one hand, novel, unusual properties, particularly a novel external appearance or a novel consistency and, on the other, to avoid the aforesaid drawbacks of conventional gels, such preparations retaining or even improving the special properties such as hair fixing and hair structuring, gel look, or wet look. A characteristic property of a gel is, for example, its surface condition. The novel, unusual properties are, at any rate, intended not to reduce substantially the cosmetic effects but, ideally, even to enhance them.
To produce a permanent deformation of human hair, curlers are needed in addition to reducing agents and oxidants. The hair is wound up along its longitudinal axis from the hair ends to the root region near the scalp. The repeated twisting of the hair around the curler causes the hair ends to have a necessarily smaller curl than does the root region. The hair-end deformation resulting in a small curl, however, hinders hair styling and is undesirable. This situation is aggravated by the fact that hair in the undamaged (natural) state of the root region has an even more closed cuticula. As a result, the root region is more resistant than the end region which is months older and as a result of the effect of combing, washing, bleaching, dyeing or waving and of environmental effects becomes increasingly brittle and more permeable. The afore-mentioned drawbacks concerning the hair ends result in a deterioration of the structure and stylability.
Repeated attempts have been made to achieve uniform waving, end protection or structure balancing by means of permanent wave pretreatment agents (for example, WO 07/09028) or with end paper impregnated with an acid (for example DE 33 11 292 A and DE 1 492 007 A) or with oil (for example DE 42 36 726 A). End paper impregnated with acid or oil shows only a weak effect as far as wave and structure balancing is concerned.